


Smells Like Home

by rboudreau



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Dydia, F/M, Scenting, Tumblr Prompt, can be taken as romantic or friendship, derek scents lydia's apartment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-04
Updated: 2014-08-04
Packaged: 2018-02-11 16:31:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2075130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rboudreau/pseuds/rboudreau
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr prompt: Fic prompts, you say? I don't know if you like Derek/Lydia, but I would like a fic where she catches him scent marking up her apartment :3</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smells Like Home

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first Teen Wolf thing I've posted on here? And only the second Teen Wolf thing I've written, so. Anyway. I apologize if it's rusty or terrible. You can take this as a romantic Dydia or a platonic Dydia, I suppose.

She didn’t notice at first. Not really, anyway. It wasn’t like she had a werewolf’s sense of smell to help her figure it out.

It started out simple enough. They’d moved pack meetings to Lydia’s new apartment since hers was the biggest. They’d all been discussing how their first semester of college was going, which of their classmates they’d found out were supernatural, and how Lydia’s organic chemistry professor was a Druid. 

Stiles was going on about these vampires in his criminology class when Lydia looked over at Derek. He’d been quiet, not having anything to contribute to the conversation, and his hands were trailing up and down the arms of the chair he was sitting in. She leaned closer to him, quirking an eyebrow.

“Is there something wrong with the chair?” she asked. His eyes snapped up to hers, his hands ceasing their movement.

“No, uh...it’s...nothing. It’s nice. Soft.” She kept her eyes on him a moment longer before turning her attention back to the group. Derek moved his hands into his lap, forcing himself to focus on Scott’s story about Liam getting in a fight with a dragon who had threatened them a couple weeks back.

**

The next time, Derek wasn’t even at Lydia’s apartment. He’d been there a few days before to drop off some books she wanted to borrow, but he hadn’t been back since. Scott came over to pick up Lydia for coffee, and was looking around her apartment while she put her money and keys in her purse. 

She noticed the look on his face and put her purse down. “What? Why are you sniffing my living room?”

Scott furrowed his eyebrows together, taking another deep sniff. “Has Derek been here today?”

“Derek?” she asked, confused. “No, he hasn’t been here since Tuesday. Why?”

“It reeks of him in here.” He sniffed a few more times, walking around her living room, finally reaching behind her couch with a look of concentration on his face. When he stood upright again, he had a leather jacket in his hand. 

Lydia looked at it in surprise. “Huh. He must have left it here when he came by. That’s weird.”

Scott nodded. “I’ll bring it to him on my way home. You ready for coffee?”

She agreed, grabbing her purse once again and following Scott out the door.

**

“What do you mean there’s a ghost problem in Beacon Hills?” Lydia asked, folding her sweater neatly and placing it on the table in front of her.

Derek shrugged. “Just what I said. We don’t know where they came from, but they’re there.”

She huffed, pulling a skirt from the hamper and folding it. “What is this, Ghostbusters? Why can’t we ever have problems with it raining chocolate or something?”

Derek fought back a smile. “I’ll be sure to let the chocolate gods know that you are unhappy with their lack of rainfall in California.” He looked at her laundry basket and tentatively reached forward to grab a blanket.

“Derek, you don’t have to help me do my laundry.”

“It’s okay,” he said, fingers running over the material as he folded it in half, then in half again. “I don’t mind.” He held the blanket in his hands until she put down the jacket she finished folding, then handed it to her. 

“Thanks,” she said, giving him a smile. He smiled back, their fingers brushing together as he gave her the blanket.

**

Malia froze in the doorway of Lydia’s bedroom. Lydia looked back at her and rolled her eyes as Malia sniffed at the room.

“Are you fucking my cousin?” Malia asked.

Lydia’s eyes widened. “What?!”

“Derek?” She took a step into the room, sniffing again. “It smells like he rolled around in your bed.”

“Oh,” Lydia breathed. “He helped me fold my laundry this morning while telling me about the ghost problem.”

Malia lifted an eyebrow. “It smells like him in the living room, too. And the kitchen.”

She sighed. “I can’t help who my apartment smells like. I’m not a wolf, I can’t smell these things. After you leave, it will smell like you, too.”

Malia looked at her skeptically. “Whatever you say.”

**

The last time she notices, she’s looking for it. After every friend with a supernatural sense of smell had told her at different times that her apartments smells like her and _Derek’s_ apartment, she suspected he was doing it on purpose.

So when Derek comes over to pick up the books she’d borrowed, she leaves him in the living room so she can go get them. She takes her time, slowly gathering the books off her dresser. She quietly made her way back to the living room and peaked around the corner.

Derek was standing by the window in the living room, his fingers running along the length of her lavender curtains, bringing the material to his face and brushing his face against it. He moves to run his hand across the top of the television, the mantel above her fireplace, the side of a lamp. She watches his movements with interest, eyes following every move his fingers make.

“Are you scenting my apartment?” Lydia asked, breaking the silence. Derek jumped in surprise, looking over at her with his hand frozen on the back of her couch.

His eyes grew wide, and a faint pink flushed his cheeks and the tips of his ears. “Uh….” he looks away nervously. “Um, no, I...I was just--I don’t--kind of?”

Lydia raises an eyebrow at him, stepping away from the wall she had been leaning against. “You were _kind of_ scenting my apartment?”

Derek runs a nervous hand through his hair. “I...don’t know what to say here.”

She places the books down on the table and crosses her arms across her chest. “It’s simple, really. Were you or were you not purposefully rubbing your scent on my things?”

“I was.”

“And is there a reason why?”

Derek remained silent, gathering his thoughts together, before speaking again. “I don’t know how to...it’s hard to explain. You’re pack...growing up with wolves, everything smells like everyone, so…”

“So you’re putting your scent all over my apartment to mark me as part of your wolf family?”

Derek sighs. “I guess? It’s more than that, though. Ever since Peter bit you on the lacrosse field, you’ve been important. To Scott, to Stiles, to Allison, to me.”

“You used to want to kill me. Literally kill me.”

“Things change.” They stare at each other for a few moments. “I can’t explain everything that being a werewolf makes me do. But I like that your place smells like me. Like the others, too, but...it feels like I have a place here.”

Lydia rolls her eyes. “You _do_ have a place here, idiot. You might not be Scott’s beta, but you’re still pack. I thought we were done with you being a loner and not thinking you belong with the rest of us.”

Derek smiles softly. “Some things change. Some things don’t.”

She shakes her head at him, dropping her crossed arms and moving into the kitchen. “Would you like to come scent my coffee mugs? I just brewed some coffee before you got here.” 

She gave him a smile that he returned as he followed her into the kitchen. He took the coffee mug out of her hand and sat on a stool. She sat next to him, putting her cup down in front of her. They sit and make small talk while sipping at their coffees. After a while, Lydia reaches over, brushing her hand along the back of Derek’s neck. He looks at her questioningly, and she shrugs back at him.

“I can scent things too.” She leans forward, kissing his cheek softly. “Now stop being dumb and know that you always have a place here.”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I appreciate any and all comments/kudos/critique you are willing to give me. Thanks for taking the time to read this!
> 
> If you want to chat, you can find me on tumblr at [ be-your-own-anchor5](http://www.be-your-own-anchor5.tumblr.com)


End file.
